Public Statements

Barton Votes for Cyber Security Bill

Statement

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Ennis/Arlington) issued the following statement after the House voted to approve H.R. 624, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2013. The final bill included a important privacy amendment championed by the Congressman:

"Chairman Rogers and I have worked closely on the privacy portion of this bill. I commend him for the work he has done with increasing consumer protections while balancing the need to protect our critical infrastructure, and I support the overall goals of this bill.

"An ongoing concern of mine is companies abusing consumers' personal information. I understand that there are going to be instances where personal information needs to be disclosed in order to properly combat against potential cyber attacks, but I firmly believe that there should be safeguards in place to ensure that a consumer's private information is not being misused.

"I offered a consumer protection amendment to explicitly restrict companies from abusing personal information by attempting to sell it for a marketing purpose. I do not want companies to assume that this bill could serve as a loophole to allow them to turn personal information into a product that can be bought and sold.

"My amendment adds an important layer of protection, and I am glad it became part of the final cyber security bill."